(New York) The American coffee chain Starbucks announced Thursday the appointment of its new general manager, Laxman Narasimhan, currently at the head of the British group Reckitt Benckiser, who will notably have to manage the unionization movement within the company.
Posted at 5:27 p.m.
Updated at 5:58 p.m.
Laxman Narasimhan will join Starbucks on the 1er October 2022. He will work, for the first six months, with the historical boss of the company, Howard Schultz, who had taken over the reins of the group since March and on a temporary basis.
Then he will take over the management alone and will join the board of directors from 1er April 2023. Howard Schultz, however, will remain one of his advisors until the end of 2023.
Laxman Narasimhan, 55, is currently chief executive of British hygiene and health products group Reckitt Benckiser. He had previously held several management positions within the PepsiCo group.
He currently lives in London (UK) and will be relocating to the Seattle (Washington State) area, where Starbucks is headquartered.
“When I learned of Laxman’s desire to move, it became clear that he was the right leader to lead Starbucks through its next chapter,” Howard Schultz said in the statement.
“He is the ideal person to shape this work and move the business forward with his partner-centric approach and previous experience building capacity and driving growth in both mature and emerging markets,” said he greeted.
Previous Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson retired on April 4 after five years in the role.
“I am honored to join this iconic company at such a pivotal time,” said Laxman Narasimhan.
This appointment “is a good decision by Starbucks”, says Neil Saunders of GlobalData.
At Reckitt Benckiser, “he helped revitalize the business and successfully meet the challenges of the pandemic,” the analyst points out, and “at Reckitt and PepsiCo, Mr. Narasimhan demonstrated his ability to fuse an understanding of the markets consumption with good operational judgment on a global scale”.
“This will be especially helpful for Starbucks as it seeks to improve its performance overseas and continue to expand into markets where it lacks potential,” he added.
The group is currently crossed by a unionization movement, which has seen more than 200 cafes vote in favor of the formation of a union, since the end of 2021. Howard Schultz had made no secret of his opposition to this movement.
“We hope Mr. Narasimhan will end Starbucks’ anti-union campaign and work with all partners to make Starbucks a better company and a better place to work,” Michelle Eisen of the Starbucks Workers Union said in a statement. United (SWU).
“This is the perfect opportunity for Starbucks to end wrongful layoffs, store closures and war on workers, and instead support our union and sign the Fair Election Principles,” she pleaded.